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Current Venus 12 or new Retail AMD cooler?

A

aelfwyne

Member
I'm upgrading from my current 3500+ to an Opteron 170. I do intend to do a little overclocking on the chip.

Currently I have a ThermalTake Venus 12 cooler, which is a pretty hefty solid copper cooler with a large 3-bladed fan I have dubbed the "fingerchopper" (along with many others).... See Venus 12 Specs Here

The Opteron 170, I have read, comes with AMD's high-end heat pipe cooler. I know nothing about the performance of that cooler other than I've heard it is "good"...

So I'm asking for informed opinions on which cooler I should use with the new CPU - the AMD one or my current Thermaltake Venus 12?
 
Heatpipe vs heatsink, eh?

Um... I'd go with the pipe every time, but that's just me.

Actually, I'd go with a Tuniq Tower 120!

I doubt if either one of those HSFs are gonna do much for your Opteron...
 
The Tuniq Tower 120 looks good, but I'm not sure I'm ready to spend another $50 on a cooler - if I could actually find it for sale somewhere (several places including NewEgg that I trust to order from are all out of stock)....
 
If the included HSF is the 4 heatpipe unit with 80mm fan, then that's a keeper. I'd go with it over the Venus 12. It will have similar construction with an 80mm fan and a thick copper base with thin close-spaced aluminum fins, but the AMD version will have the benefit of heatpipes. How is that a benefit? Well, metal on its own will conduct heat, but not very well.

If you were able to get say a 10" straight heatpipe and a 10" aluminum rod then you can conduct a simple experiment. Boil some water. Hold the aluminum rod with your fingers and dip one end into the water. Might get a bit warm but nothing too uncomfortable. Now hold the heatpipe and dip one end into the water. It will get really hot really fast.

Now, how does this help in a heatsink? Well, the copper does a good job of absorbing the heat and then the aluminum fins try to absorb some for dissipation, however the tips of the fins won't be as beneficial as near the base. With a heatpipe (or four) the tips get put to good use by having heat transferred to them.
 
I'd take the heatpipe cooler.

BTW, I have actually chopped off some skin off my finger with the Venus 12 fan. 🙁
 
the venus 12 is pretty kickass IMHO, I used to have 1. You can dial the speed of the fan down with the fan controller and it doesn't lose too much effectiveness because of its mass.
 
How about take the fan off the Venus and attach it to the heatpipe cooler? They're both 80mm. I have a Thermaltake Starforce 92mm fan on my quad heatpipe AMD heatsink (the fan included an 80mm adaptor). This way you have the better heatsink with a controllable fan.
 
How about take the fan off the Venus and attach it to the heatpipe cooler?
Click to expand...

Actually, I've thought about doing that. The fingerchopper is a nice fan, and when you use the thermal sensor that came with it, it can be quiet at times of system idle...
 
Originally posted by: aelfwyne
The Tuniq Tower 120 looks good... if I could actually find it for sale somewhere...
Click to expand...
Heh! You probably won't believe this -- I don't believe it myself.

I serendipitously became the owner of two Tuniq Tower 120s last week!

I'm still in shock... 😀

 
Originally posted by: aelfwyne
Eh? How'd that happen? I saw in another thread that you were on back-order for one - did they screw up and send you two?
Click to expand...
I had one on back-order at CoolerGuys since, like, April or May -- too lazy to go look it up...

I found one in stock at FrozenCPU last week, so I hopped on it -- thinking CoolerGuys had forgotten my back-order.

As fate would have it, FrozenCPU and CoolerGuys must have received their shipment from Tuniq at the same time, last week.

So, I ended up getting one each from FrozenCPU and CoolerGuys on Friday of last week -- $63.62 & $57.94 respectively...

Truth is stranger than fiction, yes? 🙂
 
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